“Do not depend on the hope of results.” This quote comes from a letter that Thomas Merton wrote to activist (and my Facebook friend), Jim Forest. Our worldwide reality is forcing us to truly live in the present, to take … Continue reading →

For the last two months, I’ve been away from my home in NYC and living at my mom’s. In addition to boxes of my high school mementos, my mom also has five large boxes of my 2006 quartet CD, Length … Continue reading →

On Fri, May 8 from 7-8 pm EST, I’ll be celebrating the 110th anniversary of Mary Lou Williams’ birth by playing an all Williams set on the Con Alma Solo Series! Watch the concert HERE at deannajazz.com, HERE at Facebook, … Continue reading →

In this new year, I am picturing the Pittsburgh friends who were digging my solo on the blues in the above video as being with me in my New York apartment as I finish my Mary Lou Williams book manuscript. … Continue reading →

Tomorrow will mark three weeks since my arrival in Pittsburgh. I initially came here for an engagement with my New York City trio; I chose to stay here for two months because of Mary Lou Williams and the musicians who … Continue reading →

UPDATE: Read Deanna’s article, The City Where Jazz is Love: Pittsburgh and Mary Lou Wiilliams to learn why Deanna spent two months in Williams’s hometown in the fall of 2019. This week NPR is shining a light on pianist-composer Mary Lou … Continue reading →

I’m back home in New York City after a couple of whirlwind weeks in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia. A few photo highlights: On June 22, photographer Urban Landreman took this shot of me performing with Nnenna Freelon, Chris Berger … Continue reading →

Here’s new video from Jazz Congress 2019, where I gave a six-minute pitch on my 2021 book/concert tour, Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul. I’ve been working steadily on my Mary Lou Williams biography (of the same title) to be … Continue reading →

Last week I played with vocalist Vanessa Rubin on two radio tapings for Sirius XM’s Real Jazz and WBGO’s Singers Unlimited. The WBGO broadcast airs on Sunday, May 19 from noon-1 pm. Hear it live or archived after the fact here … Continue reading →